Date Farmer © Donn Anning Jones, 2007
I found this man manually impregnating trees! He wanders through an Oasis taking white sprigs from male date palms. He ties them to his stick and places them in the tops of female trees. Talk about a trained eye! When the Gaetna (date harvest) comes around, there will be many more dates than if things had been left to the wind and the birds.
As he explained this in an alcove of palms, I asked if I could take his picture. Mauritania is culturally very closed and I’ve been refused more often than not– much more often. “No problem,” he said. “God made everyone, even tourists.” I wanted him to understand that I lived in his country but I quickly gave up and got my camera. He continued to explain to me how some people pay to take pictures—and how some people don’t. As a photographer, I have a philosophy against that idea, fearing that the whole anthropological aspect of environmental portraiture will come to a screeching halt in response to everyone’s hand extended for a few coins. Or, that with payment will come “the standard pose”. What he was talking about is as unsightly as the power cables that scratch the skylines of millions of 20th century, Western photographs. I let his words hang as I began to work. In the back of my mind I searched for the right explanation as to how it was in everyone’s best interest for photography to progress, unprostituted and to document some aspect of Rashid, Mauritania, 2007.
I put the camera to my eye and saw the man staring back at me through the lens and focusing screen. All my thoughts were replaced by an immediate realization, “That’s it!” I pressed the shutter even before I had a chance to glance at the settings. [This is a classic example of intuition (and luck!) in making a photograph. I usually use either a view camera or Leica rangefinder. (Both are cameras where everything is set manually and I am very comfortable with their straight forward processes.) I recently got a digital SLR – not because I’m sold on digital, but because of the difficulty getting chemicals here and the absence of any decent color labs. I am still getting used to the myriad of possibilities offered (but not necessarily needed) in a modern, electronic camera. I’ve been in the habit of ignoring most of the technology I purchased and using it in aperture priority mode similar to my approach with the Leica; chose the aperture and monitor the shutter speed.]
This was an instance where I just had to press the button and think about the details later. Afterwards, I saw the camera was set to one of the myriad of other possibilities and the picture was taken at 1/15th of a second at a smaller aperture than I would’ve preferred. I changed settings and kept shooting but it was over. He realized perhaps I wasn’t going to respond and his gaze transitioned into slight discomfort as I continued to “work it” beyond what the average, divinely-created tourist might do.
I put my camera away and got a bottle of milk from the cooler in our car. Most Maures love milk. He seemed pleasantly surprised with the milk solution and photography inches forward in N.Africa, relatively unadulterated.
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